It is hard not to use basketball analogies when speaking of Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City and the brilliant team the book depicts. With the arrival of the latest review from BCCB, Attucks has scored a third starred review. ★ A powerful, awe-inspiring basketball-driven history.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★ “Excessively readable.” —Booklist, starred review ★ When kids think they’ve reached the end of their civil rights era education, hand them this.” —BCCB, starred...

Phillip Hoose was presented with the 2018 Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Book Award for his full body of work in a ceremony in Washington, DC. The Children’s Book Guild of DC is a professional organization of authors, illustrators and children’s literature specialists promoting high standards in children’s literature since 1945. This slideshow requires JavaScript. Here is the text of his introduction given by longtime colleague, Kirsten Cappy of Curious City. What a time to be celebrating the work of...

“I just learned that Roberta Pressel, the Macmillan designer who designed covers for my books Moonbird and The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, passed away. Roberta put her heart and soul and brilliant eye into all of her work. Her conscience too. I remember she told me that she had been initially uncomfortable the assignment to create a cover for The Boys Who Challenged Hitler because she didn’t want to draw attention to Hitler in any way. But before declining the assignment she gave it a go. The result was spectacular, even by her...

Each year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee publishes its School Spelling Bee Study List, a list of 450 words to help students prepare for a school-level spelling bee. These 450 words come from a list of books carefully selected by the Bee’s editorial team for their engaging and age-appropriate content, as well as their rich vocabulary. That list of books is called the Great Words, Great Works list. Scripps National Spelling Bee typically chooses five books per grade level, including at least one nonfiction and one classic per grade...

“During the minute or so that I am on hold, waiting for Fred Rogers to pick up the phone, I grow increasingly tense. The next voice I hear will belong to a man whose sweater is in the Smithsonian, along with the Spirit of St. Louis and pterodactyl skeletons and Archie Bunker’s chair. He is one of the most identifiable figures in American life. When he finally does answer, how many other callers will be on hold as I scramble for whatever I can get of his time? . And then the voice arrives and instantly everything is all right. It is a...

Jeremy Felix, a seventh-grade student at Glen Meadow Middle School in Vernon Township, NJ won the Scholastic Scope national essay contest for his essay on Claudette Colvin. Kristen Lewis, executive editor of Scope magazine wrote to Jeremy, “We loved how you captured the dauntlessness and courage of Claudette Colvin…Wonderful work!” Thank you to Language Arts teacher Nancy Grimaldi for connecting us with Jeremy so that we could share his essay here. Thank you to Jeremy Felix for such a powerful piece of writing. Claudette’s...

The Washington Post shared, “The Best Books for Raising Activist Kids.” Proud to have It’s Our World, Too! Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It — How You Can, Too! by Phillip Hoose (FSG) among such amazing children’s literature titles. “As protests and marches continue to sweep the country, parents can use books to help them broach complex topics with their kids. Many kids recently attended protests for the first time and these budding activists often have tough questions. . Here is a list of books...

The city of Montgomery, Alabama has declared March 2nd, Claudette Colvin Day. That date marks the day in 1955, when the impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus. “She was an early foot soldier in our civil rights, and we did not want this opportunity to go by without declaring March 2 as Claudette Colvin Day to thank her for her leadership in the modern day civil rights movement,” —Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange Author Phillip Hoose worked...

A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Hoose was for 37 years a staff member of The Nature Conservancy, dedicated to preserving the plants, animals, and natural communities of the Earth.